Torres-Stahl, Kauffman honored for their contributions to the law

District Judge Catherine Torres-Stahl of the 144th court will be honored as the Latina Judge of the Year by the Hispanic National Bar Association at its convention in Minneapolis next week.

Torres-Stahl, running for re-election against Republican Angus McGinty, was nominated for the award by HNBA member Yvonne Gomez and was endorsed by the Mexican American Bar Association of San Antonio and Congressman Charlie Gonzalez, who described her temperament as a “mixture of compassion and sternness.”

“Judge Torres-Stahl personifies everything this award was conceived to represent,” he said in a letter of support. “She is an innovative and dedicated member of the bench,” noting her creation of San Antonio’s Teen Court in 2002.

Torres-Stahl is a native San Antonian and Fox Tech High School graduate. She got her bachelor’s degree at St. Mary’s University, where she earned her law degree. She worked for the District Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor and in private practice before being appointed to the municipal court, where she spent nine years.

She was president of the Mexican American Bar Association. She received the Amicus Award from the Center for Legal and Social Justice at St. Mary’s Law. The Democratic congressional delegation wants President Obama to name her to a federal bench.

Another San Antonio lawyer who has devoted his life to Mexican American civil rights and educational issues was honored in the 25th anniversary edition of Texas Lawyer magazine as one of 25 greatest Texas lawyers of the past quarter-century.

In its wisdom, Texas Lawyer put San Antonio’s Al Kauffman on its list. The longtime lawyer for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, now an associate professor of law at St. Mary’s, has been involved in some of the most important legal decisions impacting the ability of Latino children to get better educations.

Kauffman successfully argued the Edgewood v. Kirby case on behalf of the state’s poorest school districts. The court found Texas’ school finance system unconstitutional, the first time a court applied the equal protection clause of the Texas Constitution to education. Though other courts struck it down, “The decision triggered a struggle in the Legislature to come up with a funding plan that passed constitutional muster,” the June issue of the magazine says.

He also represented LULAC in its case against Texas over unfair, inadequate funding to border, minority-serving universities. That case helped push the Legislature toward the 1993 South Texas Border Initiative.

Kauffman also helped draft the top 10 percent rule in the Texas Education Code, which guarantees the top 10 percent of graduating high schools classes automatic entry into any Texas public university.